Narrative Style of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Narrative Style of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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In Cold Blood - Narrative Style

Capote's structure in In Cold Blood is a subject that deserves discussion. The book is told from two alternating perspectives, that of the Clutter family who are the victims, and that of the two murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The different perspectives allow the reader to relive both sides of the story; Capote presents them without bias. Capote masterfully utilizes the third person omniscient point of view to express the two perspectives. The non-chronological sequencing of some events emphasizes key scenes.

The victims, the murderers, the victims, the murderers,...-- this is the pattern throughout the first two of the three parts of In Cold Blood. During these first two parts of the…show more content…

This nonfiction work is for the most part unbiased. Capote's extensive research on this real-life event is not marred by his own personal feelings about the crime committed. The fact that he tells both sides of the story adds to the objectivity. Capote doesn't render judgment for two reasons: it is important for the reader to draw conclusions about the "philosophical-sociological-psychological circumstances of the mass murder," and Capote concluded that there should be no interference with the readers' judgmental process (Reed 107). The narrator, up to the criminals' day of execution, shows no bias whatsoever; the trial could have been an easy opportunity for the narrator to express his own opinions on how the criminals should be punished. Capote is adamant in giving the facts to the reader directly and letting the reader formulate his or her own opinion. For example, of the death sentence, Capote writes, "In March 1965, after [Perry] Smith and [Dick] Hickock had been confined in their death row cells almost two thousand days, the Kansas Supreme Court decreed that their lives must end between midnight and 2:00 A.M., Wednesday, April 14, 1965" (336).

The third person point of view also reaffirms Capote's neutrality. In addition, this viewpoint adds credibility to the piece of literature because there are few, if any, dissenting opinions of

sought to compel us, entertained us, educated us, and drive us to madness. It has served as life instruction, by using the characters as the lesson plan, and we-- the students. By itself, literature is sometimes blunt, sometimes ugly, and in Truman Capote’s case, is sometimes so gruesome that we do not dare forget it.
With the novels publication in the 1960s, a new genre called ‘New Journalism’ had begun to surface; it sought to combine the elements of journalism with the elements of fiction…

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood documents the homicide of the Clutter family, the search for the killers, and the trial and execution of the two convicted murderers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Capote gives a detailed insight into the lives of the four Clutters prior to their untimely deaths, focusing primarily on the daughter, Nancy Clutter. In his description of Nancy, Capote utilizes rhetorical strategies, such as imagery, parenthesis, and allusion, to give the audience a more intimate appeal in…

John Hollowell's, critical analysis of Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood focuses on the way Capote used journalism and fiction to try and create a new form of writing (82-84).
First, Capote involves his reader. "This immediacy, this spellbinding 'you-are-there' effect, comes less from the sensational facts (which are underplayed) than from the 'fictive' techniques Capote employs" (Hollowell 82). Capote takes historical facts and brings in scenes, dialogue, and point of view to help draw the…

Perspective in Capote's In Cold Blood
Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is the story of Perry and Dick and the night of November 15, 1959. This investigative, fast-paced and straightforward documentary provides a commentary on the nature of American violence and examines the details of the motiveless murders of four members of the Clutter family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers.
While reading Truman Capote's novel,"In Cold Blood ", I spent…

Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood with the intention of creating a new non-fiction genre, a creative spin on a newspaper article with the author, and his opinions and judgments completely absent from the text, leaving only the truth for the reader to interpret. The pages of In Cold Blood are filled with facts and first-hand accounts of the events surrounding the brutal murder of a wealthy unsuspecting family in Holcomb, Kansas. Author Truman Capote interviewed countless individuals to get an accurate…

Style Over Substance in Capote's In Cold Blood
In "Murder, He Wrote," William Swanson believes the stylistic techniques employed in Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood are more memorable than the story itself. For Swanson, Capote not only captures the readers' attention with a story about a horrific crime, but his use of diverse voices, sounds, and silences make it an event people will never forget.
Almost two decades after his initial exposure to Capote's novel, Swanson discovered…

Literature attempts to shape or reflect society, and oftentimes literature reveals truths and provides insight into the condition of that society. The American Dream is a dominant theme in American literature, and in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the idealistic dream is critically evaluated. In this paper, I will explain the context of the work, and then I will compare and contrast Dick any Perry (the murderers) with the Clutter family (the murdered) in relation to the theme of the fragility of…

In Cold Blood is a novel written by Truman Capote in 1966. In Cold Blood is a true account of a multiple murder case that took place in Kansas in the 1950's. The book outlines a brutal murder case, but it shows the story from many perspectives, not just that of the law. Capote introduces you to the Clutter family, a well known, very hard working and loyal family to the community. The town of Holcomb is a small farming town. There is not much excitement in the town, and that is the way the people…

limit their writing. They can afford to neglect minor details because they do not base their stories on factual information. There existed a period when this was the only practiced style when writing a novel. However, Truman Capote pioneered the 'nonfiction novel', as he called it, when he undertook the writing of In Cold Blood. His book described the well-known murders of the Clutters, a model American family. Due to the fact that Capote was writing a factual account of the crime, he thought it necessary…

fifty years ago in the [rural] heartland of America, that word evoked emotion out of the entire town’s population. Prior to writing In Cold Blood, Truman Capote had written several pieces that lead him to writing a piece of literature that would infuse fiction and nonfiction, thus In Cold Blood was created, albeit after six years of research (“Truman” 84). "Truman Capote is one of the more fascinating figures on the American literary landscape, being one of the country's few writers to cross the border…